Daijiworld Media Network – New Delhi
New Delhi, Aug 30: On National Sports Day, Vedanta Limited (NSE: VEDL), India’s leading critical minerals, energy transition metals, energy, and technology conglomerate, reaffirmed its commitment to the theme “Levelling the Playing Field: Sport for Social Inclusion” by empowering nearly 3 lac lives through transformative sports initiatives in FY25.
Positioning itself as one of India’s largest corporate-led grassroots sports movements, Vedanta is nurturing talent across football, archery, hockey, marathons, squash, karate, padel, and para-sports, while building a sporting ecosystem that blends infrastructure, coaching, and community engagement.
Football has been at the forefront of Vedanta’s sports outreach. The Sesa Football Academy (SFA) in Goa and Zinc Football Academy (ZFA) in Rajasthan have together nurtured thousands of players, producing over 230 professionals including Indian team stars Adil Khan and Denzil Franco. The Vedanta Women’s League in Goa, launched in 2017, has become the largest platform for women footballers, with over 1,400 participants, and recently saw Pearl Fernandes rise from its ranks to represent India at the SAFF U-17 Championship in Bhutan.
ZFA’s Mohammed Kaif and Prem Hansdak have represented India in international qualifiers, while its newly launched Zinc Football Girls Academy in Udaipur, one of the country’s first residential academies for girls, has inducted 20 under-15 players with advanced F-Cube training technology. Several graduates from these academies have been signed by Indian Super League clubs.
Beyond football, Vedanta is shaping future champions in archery and athletics. In Odisha’s Kalahandi, more than 300 tribal youth are being trained, with 110 receiving professional coaching. Among them, Sanjay Majhi made history by clinching Odisha’s first national-level archery medal in two decades at the NTPC Senior Nationals 2024. Vedanta ESL Steel’s academy in Jharkhand has also produced medal-winning archers like Aarti Kumari and Kritika Kumari.
Para-sports are another focus area. Sakshi Kale, Goa’s first para-athlete supported by Vedanta Sesa Goa, won medals at the Para Khelo India Games and represented India at the World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Paris. Meanwhile, Vedanta provides free squash training to underprivileged children in Dharavi, Mumbai.
The company also champions social inclusion through marathons under its #RunForZeroHunger campaign across major cities, where every kilometre run contributes to nutrition for children at Nand Ghar, Vedanta’s flagship Anganwadi modernisation project.
On the professional front, Vedanta owns Kalinga Lancers, Odisha’s premier hockey team, which topped goal charts in the 2024–25 Hockey India League, with star forward Thierry Brinkman leading as top scorer. The company has also entered the World Padel League with its team Vedanta Leopards, who finished runners-up in their debut season.
As India paid tribute to hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand on National Sports Day, Vedanta showcased how a corporate-led grassroots-to-global approach is levelling the playing field—promoting inclusion, nurturing grassroots talent, and investing in professional sports to reflect the aspirations of a young nation.